Pioneer Press columnist Ruben Rosario. (Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin) "Hide the truth and you hide Christ" -- A popular Greek saying. It was 2002. A publicly embarrassing clergy child sex-abuse scandal was unfolding in a large city on the East Coast. Take a wild guess which one. It wasn't long before Jonathan Bernstein's phone rang. Bernstein…Read More

Peter Isely and Barbara Blaine, both of SNAP, in Rome in June 2010. (CNS/Reuters) COMMENTARY Official history, Camus once observed, is written by those who make history, not those who suffer from it. Almost 20 years ago, A group of some 30 survivors of childhood sexual molestation by priests and I wrote to Pope John Paul II in painstakingly and…Read More

KEARNY, N.J. — Mater Dei Academy sits shuttered, blue drapes pulled across its windows, atop a hill in this working-class city. From its steps, you can peer across the mist-shrouded expanse of the Meadowlands to the distant spires of Manhattan. For generations, this blond brick Catholic elementary school tossed a lifeline to the immigrants who,…Read More

Published: 12/19/2013 - Updated: 1 week ago COMMENTARY Founder of SNAP still seeks justice BY KEITH C. BURRISCOLUMNIST FOR THE BLADE This week, I met a courageous woman. She lives in Chicago now, but she comes from Toledo: Barbara Blaine. She is founder and president of SNAP — Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Back in 1985, as a…Read More